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Friday, December 22, 2006

Al Qaeda and the Democrats

UPDATE: Link to the ABC News story was added to original post!

ABCNEWS.Com is reporting Al Qaeda is telling the American Democratic Party that "credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists":

you [Democrats} aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News. . . if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate," [Zawahiri] said.

Much will be made of this by the press, pundits, bloggers, and the Republicans, no doubt. On the surface, one could argue that Zawahiri is playing into Republican talking points of the Democrats being weak on Terror, and winning the mid term elections specifically because of said weakness.

However, this message actually shows a lack of sophistication on the part of Zawahiri and his ilk when it comes to communicating with the West, especially America. While boasting of manipulating an American election through force and fear may play well on the Arab Street, it will make it more difficult for any politician (especially a Democrat) to stake a position that has the faintest conciliatory scent upon it when it comes to tactics in the War on Terror.

Statements like this latest Al Qaeda message compel the parties to seek common ground against a bold, palpably evil enemy, something I would guess Al Qaeda would rather forgo.Some readers will find something more insidious in Zawahiri's message, a plan within a plan within a plan perhaps, but the world (and Al Qaeda) is not that complex. Zawahiri may understand what makes people tick and know how to scare them, but he does not yet understand American society and our culture.

Hopefully, the good Doctor and his closest friends will be cold and in the earth before they learn to transmit anything more than fear at America and the West.

3 comments:

I can see where you're coming to on this to a certain point, but at the same time though, it has been announced months before that al-Qaeda was watching the elections rooting for the Democrats to win, and guess what, they got their wish and now they have spoken.

I don't dispute the fact that Al Qaeda wanted to see the Bush Administration lose ground in the mid term elections; nonetheless, I still believe that Zawahiri remains tone deaf on American political culture. Boasting of Al Qaeda's ability to influence domestic American politics is only going to lead to behaviors by both parties that are largely unfavorable to the terrorist organization's goals.

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I am an unrepentant New Englander, passing time in and around the D.C. Beltway. I work happily and incessantly, spending the minutes that remain with my family. I am a conservative in the style of Milton Friedman, although eclectic is a better tag, if you are trying to pin a label on me. . .